As America Declines, China Emerges

The "New World" was the term used for the Western Hemisphere after America had been discovered by European explorers in the late 15th century. This discovery had expanded the geographical horizon of the people of the "Old World" during the Middle Ages, who had once thought of the world as consisting of Europe, Asia, and Africa. 

America had become the new emerging market, and African slaves became the new work force.

In Nevada, during the Great Recession, most of the casinos have been struggling just to remain viable; and many have already went bankrupt, including the one where I last worked in 2008. And just like the factories all across America, this week another Las Vegas casino was closed, the world-famous landmark Sahara Hotel & Casino. 

But in China, the casinos have been thriving.

In their insatiable quest for ever more profits, American-based multi-national corporations have enabled poor Third World countries to become emerging markets, by building factories overseas to hire cheaper labor. In China, the middle-class has grown exponentially, with every job created by American companies producing another job domestically to service the employee. 

Emerging markets are nations with business activity in the process of rapid growth and industrialization - the economies of China and India are considered to be the largest. With China overtaking Japan as the world’s second-largest economy last year, there can be no doubt that emerging markets are becoming increasingly powerful.

A new report from the World Bank predicts that by 2025, China and India, along with four other emerging economies — Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea and Russia — will account for more than half of all global growth.

Another key driver of growth for emerging economies, which have grown exponentially by offering cheap labor and low-priced consumer goods to developed countries, will be the ability to get their citizens to spend more on domestically produced goods and services. Discretionary spending is expanded as people shop at the malls and go to the movies...or if they wish, gamble at the local casinos.

Hans Timmer, director of development prospects for the World Bank, says that from a macroeconomic perspective, there is more consumption relative to earnings. He added that with rising income levels in emerging countries, consumers would naturally begin spending more on domestically produced goods. And maturing economies develop larger service sectors, which tend to be locally staffed* and financed...such as a McDonald's franchise.

* The 62,000 summer jobs created by McDonalds in America last month did little to boost the job numbers as the unemployment rate still went up. (As and aside: A Big Mac in China costs $1.90 in Hong Kong because China’s yuan and the Hong Kong dollar are the most undervalued currencies in the world.)

Hans Timmer also opined that there will be other opportunities for the U.S. to export more advanced products and more luxury products into those new emerging countries (such as what, GPS devices or yachts for new Chinese millionaires?)

Our own economic drivers (American corporations) have put America's economy where it is today, by eliminating our labor force through "outsourcing' - just to increase CEO pay to 400 times its average worker. Just like the CEO of General Electric said, “Today we go to Brazil, we go to China, we go to India, because that’s where the customers are." 

Unlike China's growing middle-class (with people who spend money) America has had a shrinking middle-class, with millions of laid-off workers collecting unemployment benefits and using food stamps just to live. 

Recently the political shyster Newt Gingrich blamed this all on President Obama, who to the best of my knowledge, did not as yet outsource one single American job - - - but he did sign another trade agreement with Columbia. "Free markets" and "free trade agreements" have destroyed America's work force. It's "free labor" the corporations have been looking for.

But ironically, as President Obama's Job Czar, GE's CEO outsourced thousands of jobs while collecting a multi-million salary. And just like BIG OIL, GE gets taxpayer-paid subsidies and paid no corporate income taxes to the U.S. Treasury to help pay down our national debt. Even though the tax rate is lower in China, because of loopholes in out tax code, many large corporations like GE in the U.S. pay far less taxes here than they do in emerging countries like China.

The loss of jobs in America (currently with only a 65% participant rate in the work force) has been done incrementally over several decades; and just like the unemployed of today, the U.S. work force is being gradually swept under the carpet. That's why we have not seen any serious civil unrest (i.e UK UNCUT), rioting in the streets (i.e. Arab Spring), or other subversive acts against the government (i.e. The Weather Underground).

Because members of congress (mostly Republicans) have been beholden to corporate campaign contributions, they have allowed all this to happen (corporate welfare, outsourcing, etc). Rather than put America and the American worker first, they were too enamored with corporate interests. This is why America has been emerging into a Third World country, and why Americans will be catering to the rich and the fast-growing "middle-class" that is now emerging in China. 

From PoliticusUSA: "If the average American citizen actually paid attention to the utter nonsense coming out of the Republicans’ mouths in regards to economics and the economy, the GOP would be expelled from our national and local political discussions. The old, but obviously bought and paid for lie is, American manufacturing left the United States because of the government, taxes and regulations. If that’s the case, Republicans need to explain the latest exodus of manufacturing from China to other lower wage countries in Asia."

We're fast becoming a "banana republic". In America, at the current rate, we might all be rice farmers by the next century...and by that time those same multi-national corporations most likely will be outsourcing jobs from China back to extremely desperate and poverty-ridden Americans; because I predict that by the year 2100, the Corporate States of America will then be the new emerging market - just like we once were in the late 15th century.

China today: